The Wild Bunch: The film opens with an Old West-style bank robbery in progress, but as we see more detail, we notice that several of the bandits are armed with Colt 1911's, a semi-automatic pistol, placing the film in the 20th century. (The implication is that history has passed these men by and they are throwbacks to an earlier time.)

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia: The movie opens on a rural hacienda. We see a pregnant young woman in a white dress. She is escorted away by men dressed as cowboys and taken to a chapel where a group of men await. Everything we see suggests the 19th century, except for a single man in the background in the chapel in a modern suit. The plot point ensues, and we cut to a jet plane landing. Thus Peckinpah brings us from the old west into contemporary times with a few short scenes.

My question is, did Peckinpah create this technique or was it something he may have lifted from an earlier director?